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Iraqi PM says Arab League
leaders have no right to cast doubt on his country's
political experience.
BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim
Jaafari on Tuesday criticised the Arab League over
its "disregard" for Iraq, after its chief demanded
to know why a draft constitution failed to refer to
the entire country as an Arab nation.
"The Arab League must feel the Iraqi people's
problems, and I told its secretary general (Amr
Mussa) during a telephone conversation that his
organisation has been very slow to take an interest
in the Iraqi people," Jaafari said in a statement.
"We have not seen any Arab envoys in Baghdad while
foreign officials are coming here one after
another," he said, adding that Arab League leaders
"have no right to cast doubt on Iraq's political
experience... they should change their position."
The contentious article of the draft constitution
states that "Iraq is part of the Muslim world and
its Arab people are part of the Arab nation."
Mussa, who last week said the 22-member Arab League
was disturbed by the charter, responded to Jaafari's
comments saying he "has the right" to criticise.
"But the occupation and the security situation have
made blurry the Arab League's role in Iraq... and
Jaafari understands this," Mussa told reporters in
Cairo.
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, denied Monday that
Iraq was turning its back on the Arab League, of
which it is a founding member.
Kurds are the second largest group in parliament and
they demanded that the charter refer only to the
Arab community as part of the Arab nation.
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